Published at 20th of November 2020 09:25:25 PM
Chapter 4: 4
I started to explore the surrounding area in order to procure food . I’ll start with going around the lake .
In this situation, the first possible food item which comes to mind was fish, but I was not sure if there were any present and I also lack fishing implements for catching them . I could shoot it with the rifle if a big enough specimen appeared, but retrieving it would be a pain . Let’s put that plan on hold first .
Guess I’ll go for plant-life then . But it was difficult to spot the edible ones without the proper knowledge .
I resorted to using the nanoms to check them by kneading the leaves between my fingers until fluids came out and having the nanoms scan them afterwards .
I started to indiscriminately knead the leaves of all the plants I could manage to lay my eyes on .
(Is it really possible to procure consumable nutrients from the local plant-life?)
[It’s possible . But the plant you’re holding isn’t edible . ]
[Unsuitable for consumption . ]
[Unsuitable for consumption . ]
……
[Possible to take in and digest . ]
Alright! But when I tried to put it in my mouth, it turned out tasting really godawful . I immediately spat it out and instructed the nanoms to only point out the things which could be considered as food .
………
[Suitable as food . ]
Great, I finally got one! I tried the leaves but they tasted real bad . I tried the stem but it was the same . I pulled it out from the ground and saw a small tuber-like bulb growing from the roots with a size of about three centimeters . When I tried eating it, it tasted like raw potatoes .
It wasn’t exactly delicious, but the taste may change if I baked it a little . Okay, let’s gather these for today .
While I was preoccupied with gathering the potato look-alikes, a rodent resembling both a rabbit and a mouse appeared about 30 meters away . It was frozen on the spot when our eyes met . Was this thing edible?
Okay wise guy . You’re cute, but I’ll still have you serve as my meal .
I quickly put up my rifle and finished it off with one shot . I estimated the rabbit-like, rat-like creature to be about 5 kilograms after I came closer to have a look . Its ears were too small for a rabbit’s but too big to be those of a rat’s .
When I shoved my finger inside the wound opened by the rifle shot, the nanoms judged it to be suitable as food so I decided to bring it back .
I decided to name it ‘mouse-rabbit’ . It sounded more edible than ‘rabbit-mouse’ in any case . But well, they’re both rodents so I guess anything’s good .
I managed to gather twenty pieces of mock-potatoes and hunted myself a mouse-rabbit . It’s about time to return to the rocky hill .
I managed to procure food surprisingly easily . If things went like this all the time, then I might just manage to survive somehow .
I decided to dismantle my quarry at the lakeside before I go back to the rocky outcrop to start cooking . I dismembered the creature I hunted while listening to the instructions given out by the nanoms .
Hmm, the parts suitable for being eaten were lesser in amount than expected . Just the two front legs and two hind legs to be exact . About a kilo’s worth of meat I guess . If I took away the bones, it would be around 700 grams, give or take . Can I use the fur for something? I couldn’t think of any obvious uses for it at the moment . I don’t even have any idea how to use it in the first place . It’s unfortunate, but I’ll have to dispose of it .
Then I suddenly remembered something .
(Escape pod, please respond . )
I tried to contact the pod once more, but there was still no response . Well, since Iris was now gone, I didn’t really feel that disappointed about this outcome .
I went back to the rocky hill and started prepping the mouse-rabbit meat for cooking . I haven’t tried cooking outdoors since I was in junior officer school . I’m kinda getting fired up about this .
I gathered some firewood and lit them up with my laser gun .
Cooking can be said to be my only hobby . I couldn’t really do it while onboard a ship, but I sometimes borrowed a multipurpose room whenever we were stationed on a base and treated the rest of my squad with my cooking .
At times when I couldn’t cook, I researched various recipes and scoured gourmet sites for useful info .
I might only be roasting some pieces of meat, but it’s definitely no simple task . Guess it’s really hard to cook properly without using kitchen tools huh?… Well, technically, I wasn’t really cooking but just holding the meat over an open fire .
I finally managed to roast a piece of leg skewered on a tree branch .
When I bit into the well roasted thigh meat, I found its taste to be kinda like chicken . It was slightly gamey, but it was tolerable .
But honestly, it was hard to place the taste . If one asked me if it was delicious or not, I’d probably answer ‘neither’ . It wasn’t awful, but I couldn’t exactly call it tasty either .
In the first place, only the taste of meat was present since I didn’t use any spices or condiments like salt . I might have expected a tad too much since it took no small amount of effort to dismantle it, gather firewood and cook the thing .
But I think it’ll definitely taste better if I used some salt .
Salt, huh… Is it possible to secure some rock salt nearby?
It’s already evening now . I’ll go look for some tomorrow morning . Since it was a waste otherwise, I proceeded to wolf down the rest of the meat .
I managed to get full just from eating meat . What should I do with those mock-potatoes I gathered? I placed the mock-potatoes on top of the smoldering remains of the bonfire and lightly covered them with soil on top .
This should bake them quite nicely . We’ll, I guess it’s fine even if this didn’t work out .
Since it’s already gotten quite dark, I decided to hit the sack .
(Alert Mode on . Wake me up at dawn . )
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[Acknowledged . ]
***
[It is now dawn . Please wake up . ]
Hah . It looks like I slept well last night . The morning sunlight looks dazzling . Wait, that reminds me…!
(Hey nanom, exactly how many hours is one full day on this planet?)
[Approximately 24 hours . ]
So it’s roughly the same as my home planet .
Let’s take a look at those mock-potatoes which underwent my cooking experiment . Some parts looked burnt and some parts didn’t . I peeled one and tried tasting it .
Hey, these are pretty good! They do taste like regular baked potatoes . These will be my breakfast for today .
“I really wish I had some salt and cooking tools right now,” I thought to myself while in the middle of scarfing down the baked mock-potatoes . One really can’t help but want the things they don’t have .
I plan to explore and search for food items again today . I gotta do my best .
For starters, I’ll continue surveying the areas around the lake . The entire lake shore area should stretch out to more than fifteen kilometers . There were animal trails present, so I didn’t have much difficulty walking around the place .
Once I find some new plant types, I’ll immediately start pressing them between my fingers .
………
A [Suitable as food . ] response came out soon after . It looks just like normal grass, but it was emitting a subtle aroma, so it might be a type of herb . The taste wasn’t bad as well . I pocketed five bundles of stalks .
When I walked about halfway around the lake, I managed to reach a large river which branched out from it . Well, since it was such a large lake, discovering a river wasn’t really all that surprising .
I gazed at the river intently . If there was a river here, then following it should eventually lead me out to sea . I confirmed the existence of said sea when I checked out the external monitor during the escape pod’s descent .
If I went to the sea, I should probably manage to acquire some salt . This definitely needs to be considered .
I crossed the large river by jumping over it . With nanom-enhanced musculature, jumping over a 5 meter wide river was quite easy, even without doing a run up .
I’d walked around for a while and kneaded quite a bit of plant matter before finally finding something suitable for eating .
It looked like a type of leafy vegetable . It tasted fine when I tried it . I can probably use it to make a salad or something .
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I also pocketed five bundles of them .
After walking a while more, I managed to spot a boar-like creature drinking water from the lake shore . It was about 400 meters away .
Although I kinda do feel sorry for it, I’ll have it serve as dinner for tonight . I have to secure as much food as possible after all .
I pulled out my rifle and obtained a lock . A distance of 400 meters was nothing before this baby’s zoom-in function .
After sufficient magnification was gained, I immediately pulled the trigger . The boar-like creature had already fallen the moment the sound of a plasma round firing rang out .
When I approached my quarry, I found it to be quite larger than expected . It’s definitely more than a hundred kilograms .
Its tusks were a good bit larger than the wild boar I was familiar with . It wouldn’t be wrong to call this creature a fanged boar due to these tusks measuring more than 30 centimeters . You’d definitely bite the dust if you get stabbed by these things .
Nature really can’t be underestimated . There were dangerous creatures like this running around after all .
The nanoms judged it to be suitable as food .
But getting something so large was a troublesome for me . Even if I managed to procure lots of meat, I don’t have any means to refrigerate them for preservation . I couldn’t possibly finish them all in one sitting either . And the only cooking method available to me right now was roasting de-boned meat over an open fire .
Since it couldn’t be helped, I settled for cutting off one hind leg with my knife and brought along just that . Even one hind leg could account for 10 kilograms of meat .
After walking some distance away while looking around, I suddenly heard the sound of splashing water . When I turned back, I saw the remains of the wild boar get taken by ‘something’ from within the lake . ‘It’ easily pulled down that huge boar-creature with room to spare .
I got flustered and hurriedly took some distance away from the lake .
There was that huge boar and that mysterious creature as well . The reason I remained safe until now could be said to be all thanks to sheer dumb luck . I renewed my resolve to be even more careful .
I managed to safely return to the rocky hill while remaining alert for possible threats .
When I woke up earlier, I kinda felt like taking a bath in the lake water . But after seeing what happened just now, I won’t do it even if I was offered a huge sum of money to do so .
But as expected, one couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable after missing a bath for two days straight . What should I do…?
For now, I’ll just have a meal first .
The fire wouldn’t be able to wrap around it properly if I just put the whole leg over it as is, so I sliced it into thinner pieces and skewered said pieces with thin tree branches .
The meat was done in a jiffy . I took some of the herbs I got earlier and tore them to little pieces . I mixed them with the meat and the salad-use vegetables and ate them altogether .
This thing’s quite delicious! It was overflowing with meat juices and had a sort of ‘wild’ flavor . There was still no salt, but this was a nice enough delicacy . The herbs and vegetables definitely made the difference .
I ate ravenously and stuffed myself full in no time . I could now barely classify this as a proper dish .
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There was still a lot of meat left so I’ll save them for tomorrow . It shouldn’t go bad in just one day .
After satisfying my stomach, I proceeded to think about the things I managed to discover today: the large river, fanged boar and that mysterious creature residing within the lake waters .
After successfully procuring some water and food yesterday, I felt that the area around the lake wasn’t as dangerous as expected . But it seems that was a hasty conclusion .
If I follow the direction of the large river, I’d reach the sea . Salt and seafood were both very tempting prospects .
But I’m still mostly unfamiliar with this planet . If I rushed into things without sufficient info, that might lead to me losing my life .
From the way things were going, the probability of me living and dying while remaining all alone on this planet was quite high .
There was no internet . There were no other people to talk to . There weren’t any forms of entertainment . The only thing to look forward to was probably eating .
When I thought as such, an impulse to go adventuring suddenly came over me .
In order to live enjoyably and have no regrets, I’ll have to take some risks . Yeah, that doesn’t sound too bad .
I’m getting really fired up now .
Alright! I’ll follow the river and go out to sea! I don’t plan to live like a recluse in this kind of place . I’m gonna go on an adventure! I’ve now retired from the military . From this moment on, I’m an adventurer!
Once I’ve decided as such, I proceeded to prep everything for my departure tomorrow . I plan to pack the remaining meat to serve as my meal provisions for the journey .
I couldn’t just shove them directly inside my backpack, so I looked around for something to wrap them with and found a plant with long, wide leaves . I tried pressing on them with my fingers .
[Not suitable as food . ]
(Would there be any problems if I just used them as packaging materials?)
[There are no problems . ]
I grabbed a whole bunch of the leaves and did some trial and error . I finally managed to make something which could serve as foodwrap after a few tries . The key was to weave them together .
I sliced the rest of the meat . I was worried about getting food poisoning, so I decided to properly cook it all tomorrow .
Next, I gathered some more mock-potatoes on the way to the lake . I secured some drinking water from the lake itself .
Hey! That’s right . I can probably take a bath if I simply just fetched some water from the lake to use . I don’t really have to bathe in the lake itself .
I finished all my preparations in no time . It was already quite dark, so I guess it’s time to sleep .